On February 18th, 2024, The Office of Mr. Moto presented Ezily and I with a business card containing the following cipher text:
0010
1011
1000
1011
10
0110
0011
1
1101
Et Tu, Brute?
Et Tu, Brute is an obvious reference to Cesar, implying the use of a Cesar
cipher. I initially interpreted the cipher text as binary digits indexing
the letters of the alphabet. However, trying every possible Cesar cipher shift
proved fruitless. My next attempt noted that Et Tu, Brute? contained the same
number of characters (9) as there were binary digits. This prompted me to
experiment with Vigenère cipher variants in which ettubrute was the key or
the ciphertext. This also proved fruitless.
It subsequently occurred to me that the 0s and 1s might not be binary and that
Morse code was another contender. Treating 0 as a dash (-) and 1 as a dot
(.) produced valid Morse (the inverse did not). Brute forcing all possible
Cesar cipher shifts produced one plausible candidate: tomodachi. Googling
revealed:
Tomodachi (友達; ともだち; or トモダチ) is a Japanese word meaning "friend(s)"
I subsequently discovered jmdict, which contained a reference to
Tomodachi, and updated the solution to word split the dictionary using
nltk, automating the solution end-to-end in case Mr. Moto changes his code.
Visiting the himitsu section of Mr. Moto's site and entering
TOMODACHI succeeded.
As a token of our appreciation, we are happy to provide you with the following rewards:
- Access to reservations up to 60 days in advance. Please contact us at concierge@dearmrmoto.com for advanced reservations. Standard cancellation policies apply.
- Complimentary glass of sake courtesy of Mr. Moto if you bring the business card back on the day of your new reservation.
*Please note these benefits are non-transferable.